Do you lament about the low interest rates that your saving account is providing you with? Are you afraid that your bank may be another Northern Rock? Don’t fret, enter companies such as Zopa, which is a marketplace for social lending. Instead of a bank, an individual intending to reap greater returns from savings can give a loan to another individual in need of the money. Zopa makes this possible with little risk as borrowers are credit-checked and risk-assessed and the money loaned is spread among many borrowers to further decrease the risk element for a lender. The borrower also benefits from a better rate. Such a win-win situation may spell trouble for banks who may need to find other means to attract customers into putting their money with them. All said, the rise of borrowing and lending communities can only mean good news for lenders and borrowers!

Here.org.uk is an internet marketing blog by Kieron Donoghue, who is the owner and director of UK Offer Media Ltd, which specialises in making money online through websites and blogs. Many people are creating their own websites and writing blogs but are unsure how to monetize them effectively. If you are one of them, you will definitely want to have a look at Kieron’s site. It is a great site to find out all the ins and outs of internet marketing, in particular, affiliate marketing as Kieron shares many of his personal experiences and tips in this area. It can be anything from a review on Facebook Flyers to tips on creating key word lists for PPC. This affiliate marketing blog packs a punch and offers some really sincere information which viewers will most likely find useful. So as not to miss a single post, you can subscribe to his RSS feeds. So head down to Here.org.uk and make that little step towards maximising the potential of your website or blog!

Jeff at Everything you want to know about california, and more! is giving away a cool $50. All you need to do is to write a review of his blog. He will choose the best review and give the reviewer the $50 by paypal. Contest ends 1 November so check out the contest details here!I found it a really enjoyable blog to read. Jeff has written about many places in California and apart from the narrative, he’s included some of his own personal experiences as well. The content is intriguing and many of the recent posts appear to be in line with the theme of Halloween as Jeff blogs about all the haunted places in California – one of my favorite topics I must say. Not for the faint of heart though! For those who intend to drop by Disneyland on your own, you may want to consider bringing a friend. Check out that post to find out what I mean. The formatting for the blog is simple and littered with nice little pictures (they paint a thousand words). Perhaps a downside is that there do not seem to be any sub-categories so it may be difficult to find a particular post from a topic of interest as more and more posts are added. For instance, instead of naming each post under the topic of haunted places as “Haunted Places: ….”, it may be easier to just put a sub-category “Haunted Places” in the sidebar. Other than that, I would think it is a good start to this relatively new blog!